Bad Omens
by TuesdayTerrible
Summary: The infamous USS Caryl Prompt. In which Daryl has a stab at forgiving himself.


A/N: Inspired by the Prompt from the USS Caryl; not my best work- I was just glad I was able to retweak it so it wasnt so...angsty. Anyway, please enjoy.

The prompt:

"Your fanfiction must include these elements.

"It must take place in the watchtower.

"Somewhere in your story, you must include a shoebox, toothbrush, purple scarf and a rubber duck.

"Somewhere in your story, the phrase "deer are [fucking] majestic" must be included. *expletives are optional and will neither add nor detract from your score*"

* * *

Daryl stared out into the field from the watchtower- taking a particular keen notice to the deer that had begun to emerge from the forest into the quiet of the morning.

Carol joined him then, arm brushing against his as she leaned against the tower and towards the view. A small smile gracing her frail features. They stood in silence for a few minutes, just watching the deer and enjoying the quiet of the sleeping prison.

"They're beautiful arent they?" her voice was no more than a whisper.

"Pft." he said gruffly turning away from the steadily rising sun. "Ya deer are fuckin majestic until there's a walker knawling on em'."

He slung his crossbow over his shoulder and exited the tower with a brisk nod.

.

Deer, Carol decided, were a bad omen for this group. Carl sees a deer and gets shot, Daryl brings home a big buck for dinner and Judith gets sick.

Carol, Beth, and Hershel spend their time trying to get Judith to eat but she just wouldnt take her formula. Hershel was a vet- barely a doctor- and much less a pediatrician. The medicine Judith could be given was small and did nothing to soothe her pained cries.

She had never seen anything like it with Sophia- and wondered what on earth Judith had gotten so rapidly that would allow her to not take in her fluids. Every time Judith slept- she wondered if she would wake up again.

It was later that she heard Rick expressing his identical fears to Daryl. The two stood in his cell over his sleeping daughter.

"She's going to go be with her mom." he whispered his voice cracking with tears. She felt bad for eavesdropping into his pain- but still she couldnt pull herself from the wall that hid her from their eyes.

"Quit talkin' like that." Daryl said gruffly, and Carol could almost imagine him kneeling down in front of Rick to comfort the father. "She's an ass kicker tha' one. She's gonna kick this things ass- youll see. Dont ya dare be countin her out yet n dont ya dare be disappearin on us gain ya hear me?"

There was a long pause before Daryl added softly.

"That boy needs ya."

.

She met with Daryl in the watchtower as she did every morning, a small piece of paper was crumbled up in her hand as moved in next to him.

"Feel like going for a run?" she asked the same smile brimming her features as it always did. Even though Daryl could tell that it was forced.

He un-crumpled the list and stared down at it, a small grin gracing his features as he read the items listed there.

"Carol." he said as she paused at the door of the watchtower, turning her had briefly to the side waiting for him to continue. "Ya don think she..."

She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. "No, of course not."

Neither was willing to except that Judith Grimes, lil asskicker, could possibly die in this world at such a young age. No one could imagine what would have to happen after.

.

Daryl could feel his heart twisting in his gut as he ransacked home after home, looking for stuff particularly baby stuff. The nearest store had been stripped clean and in Judith's condition no one from the inner circle was willing to venture to far from home, and no one from Woodbury had offered to step up to bat either. Not that Daryl really wanted them to anyway.

So he went through house after house, taking whatever he could and taking special care to find the items Carol had listed. The image of Judith dying crossed his mind once, and only because he hadnt allowed the image of Sophia dying to cross his mind- and look how that turned out.

But once the images started they couldnt stop- Judith's small dead form reawakening to bite Rick, or Beth or Carol. It sent his heart into a knot so tight he couldnt even breathe. How were any of them suppose to put a gun to a _babys _head let alone lil asskickers.

He paused in the bathroom of someones once average home submerged in his thoughts, staring at a little yellow rubber duck on the edge of the bathtub, when he was suppose to go straight for the medicine cabinet Still, he stared towards the duck, biting his lower lip before carefully stashing it away in his bag- if only to avoid its wide-eyed stare. He could almost hear little Judith laughing a couple years from now with this duck. He decided it was a sign, a positive one.

Hed be damned if he let another child die.

.

Carol fretted over Judith endlessly while Rick and Carl stood by anxiously as well. Hershel had expressed that there wasnt much more we could do- we had used the rest of the eligible medicine for her until Daryl got back.

Carol found herself silently praying as she watched Judiths sleeping form. Her fever was so hot- she was sure it was going to kill her and even though she knew there was no way for her to have been infected by one of the walkers- she was sure the fever was going to be the death of her.

The sweat that rolled off her occasionally whimpering form had Rick and Carl in silent tears clinging to each other as if they were all they had left. Carol's heart trembled and shuttered from the scene, from the reality that they were losing their little miracle.

She threw up in her distress much to her dismay, instantly regretting it and wishing for her toothbrush. She refused to leave the Grimes cell and prayed for Daryl to hurry back – for no matter what happened- they would need him here. She would need him here.

.

He hears the gunshot just as he's about to enter the prison. He frozen in his place unable to open the door, to afraid to see whats on the other side.

.

Its around midnight when she heads up to the watchtower- she knew he was back since he had dropped the supplies by the door. She also knew he must have heard the gun shot and he must have assumed the worst. It was only the logical thing to assume after all, Judith had been ill for days.

She threw her purple scarf around her neck and headed towards the watchtower. The wind was cold and she wondered how he stayed up there with the wind whipping as it did- with nothing more than that poncho of his.

She readjusted the shoe-box awkwardly in her arms as she headed up the stairs, pausing in the doorway.

"Can I come in?" she asked a small grin on his face, his face whitened as he stared to the shoe-box What was left of Judith no doubt, Daryl felt like he was going to be sick.

"Asskickers things?" He said trying to hide the despair from his voice. He had failed yet again.

Carol shook her head taking a seat next to him, positioning the box in her lap.

"Ya made it just in time- her fever broke and all is as well as it can be in the world." She couldnt help but smile as the life seemed to return to his wide eyes, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Shes alive?" his voice head a sense of amazement and disbelief and for a moment Carol saw the little boy inside the gruff man she knew so fondly. "But- I heard a gunshot."

"Rick shot into the air to get some of the Woodbury crew to settle down- they were distracting Hershel and bothering Judith."

He let out a long breath he hadnt even realized hed been holding before tilting his head towards her.

"So whats in the box?"

Instead of answering- she gently slid the box off of her lap and onto his. He opened the lid tentatively to reveal a box of papers all disorganized and yellow, something that looked like it came from one of hershel's old notebooks.

"Whats this mess?" Daryl questioned raising an eyebrow.

"This...is what's left of your brother." her voice was quiet. "He had it stashed under his bed in a shoe-box he must of gotten from the wardens office. I found it when...when I was cleaning up his room."

Daryls eyes didnt quite meet hers, and Carol rose to a stand. "Without that medicine- Judith wouldnt have made it. Ya saved her ya know."

His hand encircled her ankle, and without words, Carol found herself sitting next to him once again. He closed his eyes and took a deep awkward breath and leaned in and placed his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes as well and tried to will her rapidly beating heart to calm down.

"Carol." the sound of her name caused her to open her eyes slowly, to find big blue eyes staring down at her, his lips centimeters from hers.

"Thank you."

She moved to say your welcome in the way he was to scared to, and pressed her lips tentatively against his, just as a deer emerged from the forest.

.

Maybe deer werent such a bad omen after all.

* * *

Authors Note: The original version is much longer and in my opinion significantly more depressing. But I wanted to write something a little less morbid for the prompt and thus became the shorter lighthearted drabble like version of it.

Read and Review.


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